The Tennessee Titans wrapped up their third and final joint practice session against the Chicago Bears on Thursday, and Cam Ward turned in one of his better days of the summer. Joint practices have become the gold standard for evaluating starter play during the preseason, and Ward’s 19-of-30 performance with 3 touchdowns and 1 interception reinforced why Tennessee views these sessions as far more valuable than preseason games. Wide receiver Carnell Tate had a monster day as Ward’s clear favorite target, hauling in 7 of 12 targets for 2 touchdowns, while Tyjae Spears was a perfect 5-for-5 as the second-most targeted pass catcher.

The growing importance of joint practices over preseason games has been established firmly by players, coaches, and executives across the league. Sam Darnold rolled into town with the Seahawks just last week and talked at his Titans facility press conference about how much more important joint practices are than preseason games now. That’s been the case for a while, but I think the distance in importance between these two things has grown to a place it’s never been before. Teams are leaning into the intensity and privacy of joint practice from a real in-season strategy standpoint, much more than they are with what amounts to an exhibition for roster-bubble guys in the actual preseason games.

With that context in mind, here is every Cam Ward pass attempt from Thursday’s session, charted play by play:

Red zone

Ward got off to a slow start in the red zone period, completing just 2 of 5 passes.

• Completion, short right to Wan’Dale Robinson
• Incompletion, end zone right to Calvin Ridley. This felt like a throwaway because the ball was well high of the intended target.
• Incompletion, end zone right to Carnell Tate. Sailed high again. Tate was unable to elevate because he got twisted up with his own feet, but Ward has to get that ball down. That’s an overthrow.
• Incompletion, end zone middle to Carnell Tate. A pass breakup on a tight-window throw where two defenders converged and broke it up.
• Completion, end zone left to Carnell Tate for a touchdown. Ended the period on a higher note, but the red zone work was uneven overall.

Full field (first half)

Things picked up when the Titans moved to full-field action. Ward’s accuracy and rhythm improved here:

Drive 1 (4 attempts):

• Completion, intermediate left to Carnell Tate (welcome to the Tater show, kids)
• Incompletion, deep right to Calvin Ridley. A very pretty pass that needed to be caught.
• Completion, screen left to Tyjae Spears
• Completion, intermediate middle to Carnell Tate

Drive 2 (4 attempts):

• Incompletion, deep right to Carnell Tate
• Completion, short middle to Tyjae Spears, who was the second-biggest volume receiver on the day behind Tate
• Completion, intermediate middle to Carnell Tate
• Completion, short right to Xavier Restrepo, the lone Cam Ward reception for Restrepo in team period on the day

Full field (second half)

After a simulated halftime break, Ward came back out for three more drives and really hit his stride.

Drive 3 (5 attempts):

• Incompletion, intermediate right to Gunnar Helm
• Completion, short left to Tony Pollard
• Completion, intermediate left to Carnell Tate. One of the prettier plays of the day.
• Completion, intermediate left to Gunnar Helm. Not a super accurate throw, but Ward put it somewhere Helm could get to it with one arm. Helm made an awesome one-handed catch on the extension.
• Completion, short middle to Tyjae Spears. That’s four consecutive completions to close the drive.

Drive 4 (5 attempts):

• Interception, deep middle intended for Gunnar Helm. The worst throw of Ward’s day. There seemed to be confusion while the ball was in the air. Helm was looking back behind him, then back to Ward, then behind him again. He didn’t really make a play on the ball because I don’t think he thought it was for him. Ward ended up throwing it directly to the defensive back. Not a great play by the Bears so much as it was Ward throwing it right to a defender.
• Incompletion, short right to Carnell Tate. A pass breakup on a nice attempt where Tate just got bested by the defender.
• Completion, intermediate middle to Carnell Tate on a scramble drill. Ward did his favorite roll to his right and found Tate on a comeback. Those two being on the same page mentally is encouraging.
• Completion, deep left to Tony Pollard. My favorite pass of the entire day. This was a deep wheel route by Pollard running up the left sideline in one-on-one coverage with Bears rookie safety Dylan Thienemann. Pollard had to high-point the ball and made a fantastic catch. That gets a massive hell yeah from me for the offensive coordinator drawing up a Tony Pollard deep wheel route for something like a 30- or 40-yard gain.
• Completion, intermediate left to Carnell Tate for a touchdown. A roller coaster of a drive that started with an interception on the worst throw of the day and ended with a touchdown, a scramble-drill completion, and the Pollard wheel route.

2-minute drill

Ward capped the day with an 8-attempt 2-minute drill that ended in a game-winning touchdown.

• Completion, short right to Tajae Spears
• Incompletion, short left to Wan’Dale Robinson
• Completion, short right to Tyjae Spears. This play would have been a sack almost certainly based on what was happening on the back end of the play
• Completion, intermediate middle to Elic Ayomanor
• Incompletion, throwaway
• Incompletion, middle to Wan’Dale Robinson. This was the play where Bears safety Xavier Woods delivered the massive hit that Titans coach Robert Saleh called “cheap” afterwards. The ball put Robinson in harm’s way. Robinson nearly caught it but was hit high and rocked by Woods. That is a personal foul penalty all day long and twice on Sunday in the NFL, so the chains would have moved. They moved them in this instance as well.
• Incompletion, deep left end zone to Carnell Tate. A near-touchdown.
• Completion, deep left end zone to Chimere Dike for a touchdown before the buzzer. One of the only Cam Ward-to-Chimere Dike highlights I can remember from the entire camp, but a huge one to close the day.

Cam Ward’s final stat line and receiving breakdown

I charted Ward as 19 of 30 passing with 3 touchdowns and 1 interception. I plugged this charting information into an estimated NFL passer rating formula using yardage estimates based on short (under 10 yards), intermediate (10 to 20 yards), and deep (20-plus yards) classifications. The estimate came back at a 109.6 passer rating, one of Ward’s better days in practice this offseason.

Here is the receiving breakdown:

• Carnell Tate: 7 of 12, 2 touchdowns
• Tyjae Spears: 5 of 5
• Tony Pollard: 2 of 2
• Wan’Dale Robinson: 1 of 3
• Gunnar Helm: 1 of 3
• Elic Ayomanor: 1 of 1
• Xavier Restrepo: 1 of 1
• Chimere Dike: 1 of 1
• Calvin Ridley: 0 of 2

Tate’s 12-target day stands out above everything else. The rookie wide receiver from Ohio State continues to build chemistry with Ward at a rate that should make Titans fans feel good about their first-round investment.

The next time we see Ward in a high-volume, meaningful situation will be against the New York Jets in Tennessee’s home opener in just a couple of weeks. Let’s ride.